V-Flyer

So, Ive just had an exchange with a lovely lady in the VS exec office reaching out about my recent trip to LA and given how many status extensions etc we have all had, I thought I’ll just check my understanding on something!

So in June 2020 I earned 600 TPS accumulated through 3 separate refunds. (If you accepted a refund in miles you were rewarded with TPs)

My recent flight to LAX and back from Vegas, 200 extra TPs, thé limit for Gold is now 800 boom I’m at 800…straight to Gold?

Nope! The reduction comes in in April. Okay bit unfair but okay.

As per this email:

Gold & Silver tier extension

Gold and silver members need to earn 1000 tier points (Gold) and 400 tier points (Silver) to maintain their status for another year. These members will have an additional six months added to their membership year to ensure they have extra time to achieve the required tier points. Members can login to their Flying Club account online to see how many tier points they have and the new end date of their membership year.

https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb ... mbers.html

Okay so Col here books himself a little G to Atlanta for end of Feb. That will get me to 1000 right?

Only no apparently it’s not: I quote from the email with the advisor:

I apologise for any confusion caused regarding the tier points and your status, I can completely understand it can be confusing. There are two different cycles- Upgrade cycle and Renewal cycle. For the renewal cycle, tier points are calculated within a fixed period, the current membership year. The 800 tier points currently showing are the ones earned in your current membership year. When there isn't a pandemic, a membership year is 12 months, however due to Covid this was extended to 2 years, and yours now runs from 01-Feb-2020 to the 31-Jan-2023. However, the upgrade cycle tier points are calculated based on a rolling 12 month period. Therefore you would have needed 1,000 tier points in any 12 months period and unfortunately that did not happen.

It was definitely worth checking as I hope that now it has helped to understand what is needed for you to reach the gold status and I am sure with all your travel plans ahead for 2022 you will be well on your way to upgrading! At present you have 200 tier points towards your upgrade cycle and once the tier thresholds change in April that will mean you are 600 tier points away from reaching Gold, you have until the 31st December 2022 to earn these tier points.

I’m feeling a little jipped here both in terms of the 800 limit not coming in till April, but then even though there have been all these extensions that some how not counting! Whilst I’m feeling rather miffed what’s others views here?

I wonder if that was done as they realised a load of people who would ordinarily not be entitled to reach Au would do so due to their offer of miles and tier points refunds instead of cash refunds during the last two years, so this is in effect ensuring that only those who actually fly and fly frequently (open to definition of course) are reaching Au.

I'm personally of the opinion that FF tiers should be reached based on actual flights flown and more of an emphasis on tier points attained by flying instead of accepting tier points achieved as part of a miles refund in lieu of cash refunds. That said, I get the loyalty aspect of people who were prepared to forego cash refunds and I agree that it's not overly clear because on face value you just need 1,000 tier points to reach Au irrespective of how it's achieved.

I’m sorry, but had I flown I would have got 600TPs the same as what was offered.

I think my loyalty should not be questioned given I was prepared to forgo a substantial amount of cash and leave it “invested” within VS!

ColOrd wrote:I’m sorry, but had I flown I would have got 600TPs the same as what was offered.

I think my loyalty should not be questioned given I was prepared to forgo a substantial amount of cash and leave it “invested” within VS!

That is def. disappointing.

I'm with you that that TPs awarded in lieu of a cash refund should be worth something as otherwise there is no point to them.

I also have to question what the point is in making this so "complex" and building a number of "gotcha" type clauses either by design or oversight. As we go in to this year giving the few people who have flown or planned to during the last two years and managed to aquire enough TPs to become Gold or Silver can't be that high that the cost (which is fairly low) outways the good will and feeling generate by those passengers.